Nose
Intense berry fruits, cassis and chocolate mint characters notes with background cedar like oak.
Palate
Medium bodied, this wine shows a vibrant and lively fruit driven palate with a fleshy middle and soft mature ripe tannin.
Growing Conditions
VINTAGE: The year 2020 will naturally go down as a very strange year for obvious reasons. But even before our lives were tipped upside down the 2020 vintage in Margaret River had presented its own mysteries and unusual occurrences.
Another relatively dry winter was followed by the hottest and driest spring ever recorded in the South West. The region experienced the hottest October and November on record with all vine maturity stages being well advanced of normal. So much so that we harvested Chardonnay at Hay Shed Hill in January something we have never done before.
The heat of spring did not extend into summer with the summer of 2020 being relatively mild; in fact conditions were highly favourable during the early part of summer. It appears that the seasons have just shifted forward a month with an early onset of autumn in the middle of March. This early onset of autumn did not prove to be a problem as most vineyards were picked and finished well ahead of normal.
The fact that a hot spring followed a less than satisfactory winter compromised grape yields across all varieties with crop levels being for the second year in a row uniformly poor. While quantity was low quality cannot be doubted. The whites are fresh and crisply varietal and the reds are vibrant and ripe with that lovely medium body that is the signature of Margaret River.
Bottling
Winemaking
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes from the Hay Shed Hill vineyard were harvested and de-stemmed into open topped vessels for fermentation on skins with traditional pump-over cap management to aid colour and flavour extraction.
Aging
The wine was matured in French oak barrels for 13 months allowing integration of fine oak and development of the soft ripe tannin.
Appearance
Deep crimson red of good intensity and vibrant hue.
Food Pairing
Char grilled vegetable pasta.